Salt Lake City 2002

For me, this was the second consecutive American destination, the previous being Squaw Valley in 2018. I missed 2019’s trip with Mike and Chris to Trois Valle (Meribel was the venue for Women’s Apine) as I had just become a dad.

Salt Lake City really wanted the games. Plans to host the games started 30 years prior, starting with the bidding process for the 1972 Games. These games ultimately went to Sapporo. A couple of decades later Salt Lake City was a few votes short of hosting the 1998 games that went to Nagano. A public referendum in the late eighties overwhelmingly backed hosting the games and the state directed a portion of the sales tax to building facilities in support of future bids and anticipation of hosting the games.. This is a contrast to the sentiment at prospective host cities today, with the IOC having trouble finding willing partners to host the games - Oslo and Calgary withdrew their bids after local referendums overwhelmingly confirmed residents did not want the Olympics rolling into their cities.

1000 Day countdown clock still present but not counting down

Salt Lake City is probably best known for the games that marked a turning point with the host city selection process. In 1998 it was revealed that the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) had inappropriately offered scholarships to IOC member’s children. With the upper management of SLOC dismissed, the games were in trouble. Mitt Romney was hired to lead the committee 3 years before the games began and by all accounts he turned things around. The games were very successful: they turned a surplus of $40million (which was invested in preserving the legacy) and were enthusiastically attended.

Salt Lake City during the games - with the iconic building sized photos of athletes. 

Salt Lake City was the site of some memorable Olympic moments: Canada ruining the party by winning Gold in Men’s Hockey Final against the USA, Australian Short Track Speed Skater, Steve Bradbury winning an unexpected gold after all the other competitors collided on the final lap and Janica Kostelic winning 3 Alpine Gold Medals (combined, slalom and GS) Having never visited Salt Lake City before, we were curious what the legacy and skiing would be like nearly 20 years after the games.

Utah State Capitol Building

As I did not want to be away from my family for too long, I joined Chris and Mike after they had spent a week exploring spectacular Southern Utah and other ski resorts in the area.

We now tend to incorporate other winter sports in our itinerary and after our obligatory visit to the State Capitol, we went to the Utah Olympic Oval. To demonstrate the enthusiasm for hosting the Olympics an outdoor oval was built at the site in the mid nineties. A few years later, after winning the bid, it was destroyed and a state of the art indoor oval was built. Like Calgary, records were smashed here owing to the high altitude (100m higher than Calgary). My speed skate outing was not as successful here as Calgary, requiring a change to hockey skates but it was nice to be on the ice.

A few things I remember from the Salt Lake Games, was the giant murals of athletes on the Salt Lake City’s skyscrapers and the iconic cauldron. Unfortunately a few weeks before we arrived the cauldron was dismantled for restoration and the Olympic interpretive center was closed.

Skating at the highest and fastest Olympic oval

The following day we were skiing at Snowbasin, the site of the Men’s and Women’s Downhill and Super G events. Snowbasin has a 3000’ vertical and is one of the oldest ski resorts in the US. It has wonderful lodge facilities made of wood and stone, decorated with gentleman’s club style furniture and large fireplaces. I attempted the men’s and women’s downhill. Both were tough. The men’s course (Grizzly) was not groomed at the start and end, I had more luck with the ladies course (Wildflower). I did manage to finish both without falling, but it was pretty slow going. Snowbasin doesn’t have any accommodation, one needs to base themselves at Odgen for that and an apres ski/university scene - if you can find a restaurant that has any tables free.

Grizzly Men's Downhill Start 2002 & 2020

Our final stop in the Wasatch Mountain Range was Park City. Park City was similar to St Moritz in that it was where a lot of people with a lot of money come to enjoy themselves. But the similarities end there, while St. Moritz is dominated by high-end hotels Park City is dominated by sprawling condo complexes, huge single family homes and lots of cars. In St.Moritz, the evening entertainment happens behind closed doors, while Park City is more open. The condo we rented was probably the most expensive accommodation per night and it was a 15 minute drive from the slopes. Mike insisted on shopping at Wholefoods which resulted in a fairly average $60 USD homemade chili (my apologies Chris & Mike). We also experienced $7 slopeside coffees.

The skiable area at Park City is huge. The first day we spent at Canyonlands, a lot of the runs felt like suburban skiing: the trails often wound their way between very affluent, low density new homes built right on the slopes. The skiing wasn’t that memorable here.

The next day we moved on to the Park City base, here we had the best ski days of the trip. The weather and conditions were fantastic: sunny, no wind and just below freezing. I was enjoying the fine conditions on one the first runs of the day down Temptation when a middle-aged women, came over a ridge, perpendicular to the general flow of the run, I had to react to avoid a collision and I went through a fence and down a 5m ledge into some shrubs pretty much full tilt. It was probably the worst ski accident I had been in this past decade. The woman did stop, asked if I was ok I said yes, even though I was in a fair amount of pain, said sorry and was off. I managed to get out on my own; fortunately nothing was broken. Mike noted that he was finishing the runs before me so I must have been hurting!

Park City has the unique experience of skiing past abandoned mines

We had two more days of great skiing, lot’s of blue cruisers - which Mike is always content to do all day long and I was too in my condition. The cruisers were mixed with East Coast style glades. For lunch we enjoyed some good, but expensive food at the Mid Mountain Lodge.

Park City Panorama

We finished our time at Park City with a trip to Soldier’s Hollow, the venue for the nordic skiing events. It is a bit of a ways out of Park City and during the Olympics thousands of spectators travelled to the venue by vintage steam train to a purpose built station. It was hot and very sunny by the time we got on the trails. The conditions were very much spring like, and we sweated through a quick 30 minute excursion. The area was quite compact with scrubby vegetation and although surrounded by mountains, not as spectacular as Canmore.

Spring conditions for nordic skiing at Soldier's Hollow

Skiing Gold

Like Innsbruck and Vancouver, Salt Lake City is a skiers city. It is surrounded by lots of top class ski resorts in a relatively small area. Although we did not experience Deer Valley, due to the insane lift ticket prices. Snowbasin and Park City had a wide variety of skiing terrain for intermediate and experts with great snow conditions. The resorts had extensive lift capacity and there was limited queuing. I enjoyed the odd glade run mixed with some black diamonds and lots of blue cruising. I do dispute the self-proclaimed “Greatest Snow on Earth” title, for me that title belongs to Hokkaido, Japan.

Snowbasin Panorama

Off Piste: Gold

Like Calgary, this is a tricky category to rate, the apres ski experience is different from the hard partying scene of some European resorts. Salt Lake City is fairly large and there is plenty to do but its sprawling nature doesn’t lend itself to a vibrant urban feel. Snowbasin, didn’t have much going on but 25 minutes away in Ogden is an attractive town centre with many busy restaurants, it has a more US college town feel than apres ski.

Park City has the traditional apres ski scene and it is pretty impressive. The restored Main Street has many (expensive) restaurants and bars. The night I led an unsuccessful expedition to experience the scene, the restaurants were packed, with no space available. We could however immediately after a day of skiing easily find a spot at a terrace enjoying a pint while a band got set-up. For lunch on the final day, we had a good Japanese-style meal on Main Street. What I found really impressive is the chair lift right to Main Street so you can find yourself from the centre of town to tearing down the sloped in 5 minutes. In the surrounding area is the Utah Olympic Park (home of bobsled and freestyle skiing) and lots of nordic skiing in the surrounding area.

Main Street Park City UT

Owing to its Mormon roots, Utah has some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in America. Some of the rules we encountered were: you can only have one round without food (subsequent rounds require you order food with drinks), you can only consume alcohol while seated and if you are out of state, the only accepted form of ID is a passport. I can be described as quite pious when it comes to alcohol, so Utah’s restrictive alcohol laws didn’t bother me too much.

Overall Gold

Salt Lake City really embraced the Olympics and is also proud of the resulting legacy. Every former venue has a prominent tower marking its Olympic history. Although it does not look like much FIS downhill racing takes place at Snowbasin, most of the venues are used for the original purpose. The Utah Olympic Park is an excellent training facility and we saw future Olympians using it to learn Ski Jumping and Moguls, likewise training was taking place at the Olympic Oval. Walking around Salt Lake City feels completely safe and I was impressed by the general low levels of homelessness and the proximity to many great ski resorts. The skiing was not the best we have encountered and the cost was probably the highest to date, but the overall experience makes this trip worthy of gold. Salt Lake City could easily host another games and I think it would be another great success. They may get another chance to do this, they are registered as an interested city for the 2030 games.

Marc Says “What no sabre? Disappointing.”

Mike Says “Can you smell the freedom”

Chris Says “I think I prefer skiing in Europe.”

Squaw Valley 1960

The original plan was to once again combine skiing with some sightseeing. In this year’s case, a week of road tripping down the Pacific Coast Highway from Seattle to Washington San Francisco?. Due to a short notice change of plans beyond my control, we had to cut the road trip and just do the skiing portion of the holiday. We took the risk and booked the partially refundable early bird accommodation special. California lived up to its not-so-snow-sure reputation this season and we ended up travelling thousands of kilometers to some marginal, mature snow conditions while most other major ski regions around the world were having a bumper season.

The State Capitol in Sacramento

Mike and I met at SFO, then drove to Sacramento to meet with Chris and Laura. It was a full compliment this trip. After visiting the California State Capitol, surrounded with tall palm trees, orange trees and giant cedars and touring the superb California State Railway Museum, we had lunch in Sacremento’s Old Town. We did some Alpine interstate driving over the scenic Donner Pass. We spent one night in Reno, Nevada to test our chances with lady luck. We all were lucky, with Laura being the luckiest winning $90 on a very random Orange is the New Black Slot machine! The following day we had an excellent Trip Advisor advised tex-mex diner breakfast and then visited our second State Capitol at Carson City, Nevada. We then did another very scenic drive to the impressive Lake Tahoe. As the sun was setting we drove to the Western Shore and into the Olympic Valley for some skiing.

Opening Ceremonies from the Memorial Arena (ski jumping is just behind)

The awarding of the Winter Olympics to Squaw Valley is a testament to the power of one man’s ability to persuade people to buy into a vision. When Squaw was selected as the host “city”, just over four years before the Olympics were to start, it only consisted of a 58 room lodge, one chair lift and two rope tows. Everything would have to be built in four years to host the Olympics, not just to host the events, but the infrastructure required for a small town that the area was to become. Alexander Cushing, who owned the land convinced the State of California, US Olympic Committee and finally the US Congress they should support his Olympic bid. Apparently armed with a fairly large model of the site, Cushing controversially convinced the IOC too that Squaw Valley should be the place for the VIII Winter Olympic Games.

The indoor/outdoor Memorial Arena

The plan was to keep the site extremely compact, all sporting events bar cross country skiing would be a short walk from each other. Bobsled was cut from the programme for the first time because the organizers couldn’t be asked to build a costly track for a sport with limited appeal and participation. (It is probably not a bad call, even in this day and age). A brand new arena was built as well as a few outdoor rinks. Walt Disney was enlisted to produce the opening and closing ceremonies that featured the Tower of Nations which still stands outside the entrance to the Olympic Valley today. Squaw was the first Olympics to have biathlon, women’s speed skating in the programme and was where the Olympic Anthem was sung for the first time.

Lake Tahoe

The opening ceremony was delayed by a blizzard, but when we arrived the weather was anything but blizzard like. It was very warm and the only snow around was of the artificial variety. We checked into our condo, which was very large and well equipped. The following day we skied the runs that were open, the weather was pretty special despite the lack of snow. No wind, no clouds, well above freezing but the pistes more or less held up until after lunch, after which they got a bit sloppy. Once the runs got soft we had an après ski drink in the sun in our sweaters. We repeated this for pretty much three days. Most black diamond runs were not open, particularly the un-groomed ones. On the second day Mike and I checked out the small Olympic museum at the High Camp Chalet. Using old Olympic reports as my guide, I did my obligatory Men’s Downhill Run. It was steep at the beginning but otherwise was a very straightforward blue run. Mike fortunately brought the all import champagne sabre and, for the first time, I smashed a bottle of cheap sparkling wine. (Note to self: saberage is not for cheapskates, thick champagne bottles only)

A large on-piste obstacle

Friday we went to Alpine Meadows, which was another ski area covered by the same lift pass. It had a local feel to it, which was great. It had superior conditions to Squaw Valley and was full of blue and black cruisers. I think it was our best day’s skiing on this trip. We even enjoyed European Style Alpine Terrace coffee and basked in the sun in between blue cruiser runs.

On Friday, after we skied most of the open runs multiple times, we decided to leave in the morning and spend the afternoon exploring the San Francisco area. It is an impressive city and I am glad had the time to explore it.

As far as the Olympic Legacy, there is not much left, the ski runs seem to be more or less intact, but the buildings and facilities are gone except for two medium sized chalets and the tower of nations. The hockey and figure skating arena, the largest venue, collapsed in 1983 when too much snow accumulated on the roof. The first purpose-built Athletes’ Village is also long gone.

The former Visitor Center- one of the last original buildings still standing from the 1960 Olympics

Skiing: Silver

Squaw Valley lived up to its not so snow sure reputation when we were there. I think the day in Alpine Meadows pushed the skiing from bronze to silver for me. If there was ample snow Squaw would be a strong silver. It doesn’t have the huge vertical of the “gold” ski areas we had been to but there were numerous areas to ski. We had ample lift capacity and the crowds were minimal. Apparently after a big dump of snow it can get very crowded. Due to the lack of snow coverage, we had a lack of variety of the runs but there was still enough to keep us entertained. I really liked the runs at both Squaw and Alpine Meadows with the large pine trees. The conditions were pretty good considering it was close to +20C outside.

The Tower of Nations 1960 & 2018

Apres Ski Silver
Squaw has a compact “village” at the base with condos and a selection of shops and bars. There was live music at our preferred venue and we could have a pint of beer/cider outside without our jacket on! There were two or three places for a drink and it is typical ski resort manufactured quaintness; case in point the fire “pits” were fuelled with natural gas rather than wood (Norway top marks here). Yet it is convenient and there was live music. Located within a 10-20 minute drive by car, the historic town of Truckee to the north and Tahoe City to the south offered a good selection of restaurants, bars/pubs, shops and services. What was missing was the lively and exuberant vibe that we have experienced at some other resorts.

Overall: Silver

Our trip to Squaw was a good one, the skiing conditions were not great but it was clear if we had good conditions the would be solid silver skiing. The condo we had was right near the base with establishments for apres ski.  The Lake Tahoe area is has a unique natural beauty which further enhanced the trip.  I would like to return when there are better conditions.

The landscape around Squaw Valley was the inspiration for the Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland

Marc Says “No Laura, saberage is cool and completely worth it”

Mike Says  “Spring skiing in February is alright I guess…”

Chris Says“Ok I will come to Europe next year but what is the exchange rate?”